WHEELING, W.Va. — The organization that oversees the placing of Catholic priests at Wheeling University has announced it will reassign the remaining priests this summer.
USA East Province of the Society of Jesus said in a Thursday news release that it’s informed the university and the Wheeling-Charleston Diocese that it’s making the move for a number of reasons including a “declining number of Jesuit priests available for ministry.”
The province had continued to provide priests for Wheeling University even after it ended its official sponsorship of the school in 2019. The name was changed from Wheeling Jesuit University to Wheeling University.
“The University and the Diocese are actively pursuing the possibility of having a rotation of teaching Jesuits who would spend a semester or a year at Wheeling University, so that future generations of Wheeling students might have the benefit of the Jesuit approach to higher learning,” USA East Province said. “This would maintain a connection with the Society of Jesus, which for so long staffed the school.”
According to the organization, Rev. Ignatius Hadi Sasmita, SJ, Campus Minister; Rev. Richard McCouch, SJ, Director of the Appalachian Institute; and Rev. James Conroy, SJ, local Jesuit Superior and retreat master, will be reassigned to other apostolic works this summer.
The university’s Board of Trustees voted in July 2019 to change the name after the Society of Jesus announced in April 2019 that it was ending its affiliation with the school because Jesuit teaching was being eliminated on the Wheeling campus.